Local Columbus politics has officially “jumped the shark” and become a performance for the cameras. Like any blockbuster movie you need an endless budget (provided by the taxpayers), a script (distraction from mistakes and secrecy of purpose) and a master director: Shannon Hardin.

In any other sane world Emanuel Remy would have already stepped down from office, but the director wants to keep him in the cast to pretend to govern. Remy is just good enough to follow directions and not ask questions. The director will allow abusive behavior because he has unlimited money to pay off the victims and continue his reign. And that’s what it has all become. To Director Hardin we are just one of his movies.

Our local government is a stage performance riddled with dozens of positive and happy Facebook posts about how the Mayor and City Council love you. All cream and sugar; 24 hours a day paid for by your taxes.

• And the lives of the Columbus homeless? Not part of Hardin’s script.
• Affordable housing for the working poor? Not important to the plot.
• Allowing voters to decide who represents them? Never.

And the director of this movie masterpiece is always pulling the strings behind the scenes with an unlimited amount of your money and zero accountability (when was the last time the city ran an audit?). And since the local government has not been serving the people the business world has stepped in to fund outsider candidates such as Jesse Vogel.

The Nov 4 election for District 7 was the most expensive City Council race in Columbus history.

It wasn’t a competition of ideas between two Democrats, but a statement by the City apparatus: Don’t challenge our authority. We will destroy you.

Together Ross and Vogel poured over half a million dollars into the race, but the real “tipping point?” That came from the sitting members of City Council. They transferred hundreds of thousands of dollars from their individual campaign accounts into their “endorsed candidate” Ross. She is the perfect actress for the movie being made by Director Hardin. Vogel is not. It’s just that simple.

And how did the residents of District 7 think about the hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on the campaign? They still voted for Vogel, but City Council doesn’t care about them. “Taxation WITHOUT representation” is their motto. And, thanks to the “at large” voting system enshrined into the city charter it’s a gerrymandered dream of Steve Bannon. Sure, only 11 percent of citizens bothered to vote, but it was enough for Ross to celebrate the victory of City Council.

That’s the way “democracy” works in Columbus. It’s not a debate of better ideas or strategy; it’s a movie being directed by a career politician who never makes a mistake and earns obedience from his place of power.

Remember, Ross didn’t win the election and neither did Vogel.

Shannon Hardin and his City Council won this election – further proving that Columbus Democrats hate democracy.